


Padawan Exchange

by irhinoceri



Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Episode: s01e09 Cloak of Darkness, Episode: s02e06 Weapons Factory, Gen, Jedi Buddy Cop Adventure, Many mentions of Ahsoka Tano, POV Barriss
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-12
Updated: 2017-03-12
Packaged: 2018-10-03 09:34:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,132
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10241675
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/irhinoceri/pseuds/irhinoceri
Summary: While Luminara Unduli and Ahsoka Tano are away on a mission, Anakin and Barriss form an unlikely duo on Coruscant. Barriss stumbles upon a sinister plot to harm Mon Mothma while Anakin tries to get away to spend time with Padmé. Takes place during the events of S01E09: Cloak of Darkness.





	

 

 

It was not the first time Barriss had participated in a padawan exchange.

She had been Luminara Unduli’s padawan for several years now, and at different times had shadowed such masters as Kit Fisto, Coleman Trebor, and Pong Krell.

She looked forward to these yearly exchanges. They were meant to broaden the horizons of both padawan and master, shaking them out of their routines and disabusing them of the notion that the singular bond formed between two Jedi, however necessary, did not transcend the entire Order.

There was some doubt that Yoda would continue the exchange this year, now that the war with the Separatists had been raging for months and did not look to be ending any time soon. But the head of the Jedi Order was not to be shaken from his traditions, and so one day Luminara approached Barriss with the news that she was scheduled to rendezvous with another Jedi and accompany them on a mission.

“Who shall I be paired with this year, Master?” Barriss asked.

“You will be spending some time with Anakin Skywalker,” said Luminara carefully.

“Oh,” said Barriss, feeling oddly as if she had been struck in the midsection. “I see.”

“I have to leave soon for Rodia,” Luminara told her. Barriss caught the semi-apologetic way she eyed her. “I know that it is usual for us to meet with the other master and their padawan first, but the war has disrupted things this year. I shall pick up Skywalker’s padawan on my way to Rodia and we will be escorting a prisoner back to Coruscant.”

“And what shall I do?”

“Wait here at the Temple for Skywalker.”

Barriss nodded. “Is he on Coruscant?”

“Erm,” said Luminara. “I don’t actually know. But I’m sure he’ll be here before long. I’m sorry, Barriss, but I must be off. And I know that it is rather unusual for a senior padawan such as yourself to be paired with a newly knighted Jedi such as Skywalker, but… well, Yoda wanted me to take Ahsoka under my wing for a bit. I’m sorry.”

“No need to apologize, Master. I have always been on good terms with Anakin. I’m sure our mission will prove important for the war effort,” recited Barriss. “I have heard interesting things about his, uh, battle tactics. Perhaps I will learn something after all.”

Luminara smiled placidly. “Yes, I knew you would take this in stride. Be well, Barriss. I will see you when I return to Coruscant.”

She bowed, and left, and Barriss allowed herself a long, heavy, put-upon sigh.

It wasn’t that she had anything against Anakin Skywalker, it was true that they had always got on well before, but he was… he was… well he was barely even a Jedi Knight! The last time she had even _seen_ him he had been a Padawan. Just like her.

The passage of a few months had resulted in not only his graduation to Knighthood, but his promotion to General in the Grand Army of the Republic. If that were not enough, he had also been granted a padawan learner of his own. Well, good for him. Anakin had always been an ambitious sort, saying even as a younger padawan that he had his sights set on the Jedi Council and wanted to beat Master Windu’s record of being the youngest Jedi appointed. She had thought that was all so much youthful bravado, but it seemed now that the war was putting him on a fast track to achieve his goals.

Master Unduli always said that ambition and pride were unbecoming in a Jedi and not qualities to be admired.

Anyway, from what Master Unduli had said, it sounded like Yoda had arranged for this particular exchange for the benefit of Skywalker’s new young padawan. Barriss didn’t know anything about her, beyond a few cursory facts, like her name and that she was of the togrutan people. But she felt an inkling of resentment, that she should be foisted off on Skywalker, who was practically her own age and experience level and didn’t have anything of use to teach her (to be quite honest) just so that Ahsoka Tano could benefit from Master Unduli’s wisdom.

Well.

Another undesirable trait was allowing one’s pride to be wounded by a perceived slight.

She was supposed to wait for Anakin (she would _not_ call him Master Skywalker) but for how long, and where? Should she wait in her room? Wander the hallways of the Temple? Mosey on down to the library? Do some exercises in one of the dojos and hoped he found her sooner or later?

She didn’t know, and Luminara was gone, so there was no one to ask unless she wanted to go to Yoda. (She very much did not.)

So it came to be that Barriss passed an entire day in solitary pursuits.

She spent some time reading in the library, watched a holodrama in her room, the took a long walk around the courtyard, then practiced her lightsaber forms as the sun set over the bustling Coruscanti skyline. She had not seen Skywalker nor received any pings on her comlink the entire day, and she was beginning to think that perhaps this wouldn’t be such a bad exchange after all. There was a pleasant freedom to it, to not having any responsibilities or assignments given to her by Master Unduli and no other Jedi Master to be scrutinized by. It was certainly shaping up to be a better day than the one she had spent being glared at by Master Krell, who had found fault with everything she did or said and wouldn’t stop comparing her unfavorably to his own padawan. He had driven her nearly to tears, but she had been strong, and stoic, and thought she made Master Unduli proud. If Luminara ever indulged in the vice of pride, that is.

She was on her way back to her room, thinking about going to bed or meditating over a cup of nighttime tea, when she finally caught sight of Anakin. He was walking jauntily down the hallway, looking as if he didn’t have a care in the world, his astromech droid at his heels.

A part of Barriss wanted to just keep her head down and continue walking. But another part, the part that was the good padawan Luminara Unduli had raised, knew that she should make some sort of effort to fulfil her duty.

“Good evening, Master Skywalker,” she said, approaching him, even though she had told herself she wouldn’t call him by an honorific. His first name had been good enough before, but of course, that was when they had been the same rank. She found that she was incapable of breaching protocol when it came right down to it.

“Oh, hi Barriss,” he said, after stopping and looking around to locate the source of the greeting. “How are you?”

“Um… I’m good,” she said. “I’m doing well. And you?”

“Can’t complain. I have leave from the front lines for a short while,” he said. “Nice to be home.”

“Oh, yes, how nice it is.”

“Yup.”

“Mmhm.”

“Well, nice seeing you again, Barriss. Tell Master Unduli hello for me.”

He started walking again, and Barriss fell in step beside him. She wasn’t quite sure how to broach the subject of the exchange, which he apparently had forgotten about, or had not even been notified of to begin with, it seemed.

She opted for meaningless small talk: always a safe bet. “You have been fighting on the front lines for a while now, I’ve heard. Always in the thick of things. That must be very exciting.”

“Uh, yeah. Really wears you out after a while, though. Good to get some rest. Back here.”

Barriss recognized the attempt to brush her off. The way he lengthened his already long strides made it hard to ignore. But she quickened her pace to keep up, as the astromech increased its speed to do the same. “How is your padawan?” she asked, hoping that would jog his memory.

“Good, she’s good. She’s great. Learning fast,” he said, almost at a light jog now.

“Where is she right now?” Barriss asked.

“Oh, they sent her on a mission with Master Un… oh.” He stopped abruptly. The astromech skidded a little as it tried to avoid crashing into him. It failed, and blatted out a disgruntled noise as it stuck his legs.

Barriss kept her face and tone completely neutral. “Yes?”

“The padawan exchange. Was that… was that today?”

Barriss nodded.

He uttered some unintelligible interjection and then ran a hand sheepishly though his hair. (Well, it wasn’t unintelligible because Barriss studied languages diligently and knew a bit of Huttese, but she _pretended_ she didn’t understand, and smiled placidly, like Luminara would.)

“Were you going somewhere?” she asked.

“Me? Oh, no. I wasn’t going anywhere.”

“Really? Because the living quarters are that way, and you were walking that way,” she said, pointing in opposite directions.

“Oh, well, um, yes actually. I was just going out to… patrol.”

“Patrol?”

“Yes, patrol the streets. You know. Jedi business.”

She cocked her head to the side. Anakin had always been a little strange, but the war had made him _quite_ strange. “Isn’t street patrol more of a law enforcement droid thing?” she inquired.

“Well yes. But I mean, er, patrolling for Separatists, in particular. Hasn’t Master Unduli told you about the new, uh, protocols with the whole… being on the lookout for Separatist spies?”

“No, she hasn’t.”

“Right, well, they’re new.  The protocols, not the spies.”

“I see. Should I come with you?”

“Oh, I don’t know if it’s something that would interest you.”

She frowned. “I did not expect it to be fun and games. I only thought that as I am supposed to be shadowing you and learning from you, I should probably accompany you on this mission.”

He waved one hand dismissively. “Oh, Barriss, you don’t need to learn anything from me. You were the only other padawan to survive Geonosis, and I heard all about how you fought those chameleon droids to defend the Crystal Caves alongside Luminara on Ilum. I’m surprise you haven’t graduated already, and been given your own command, actually.”

“I’m only seventeen.”

“So? I just turned twenty and they’ve already knighted me _and_ given me a padawan to look after. What we’ve all gone through in this war so far has been more challenging than the Knighthood Trials, anyway.”

“Perhaps,” Barriss said, thinking back to that horrifying encounter with chameleon droids in the crystal caves—which she had been doing her best to forget. _Thanks, Anakin._ “But I think that I should accompany you all the same. Master Unduli will expect me to report on what I did today and I think she would be displeased with me if I said I went to bed while you patrolled for Separatist spies.”

Skywalker had a strange, caged look about him. For a long moment he just stood there shifting his eyes from side to side as if trying to think of another reason to put her off. Barriss was trying not to feel slighted, but it was difficult. _She_ was a model padawan, or well, she tried to be. Any Jedi should be happy to have her along on a mission. Skywalker, though, looked like he was about to bolt again and test her ability to chase him down.

“Alright,” he said, finally, his shoulders visibly slumping. “Let’s go rustle up some spies or something.”

“Right. Or something,” she muttered under her breath as she followed him out of the Temple.

* * *

“...and then Ahsoka swung down from the rafters and took out the seventeen battle droids that had surrounded Rex, and they had about two minutes to get off the ship before it split into two, so she commandeered a shuttle and they jumped aboard and escaped. She piloted it herself all the way back to my star destroyer while tending to Rex’s wounds.”

“Oh my,” said Barriss.

“Yes, it was most impressive. Yularen didn’t think they were going to make it back, but I never doubted. Snips can hold her own.”

“Snips?”

“Oh, I mean Ahsoka.”

Barriss nodded.

The night was progressing in a most peculiar manner. At first, Skywalker had not been very talkative, as Barriss had tried and failed to discuss the protocols for this surveillance, or patrol mission, or whatever it was exactly. They had wandered somewhat aimlessly through Coruscant, ending up at the Outlander’s Club, and Skywalker had just told her to sit and watch for any suspicious behavior.

He ordered himself a drink, but Barriss declined his offer to get her something, since she was too young to be served by herself. She’d heard from others that padawans sometimes got away with subverting the age requirement, especially if they were with their Master, but she was not the sort to test the rules of Coruscanti society or take advantage of the power the Jedi Order held in the minds of civilians.

She decided to try small talk again, since that was often a particularly difficult task for her, and she figured that even if Skywalker wasn’t being a very good Jedi Master, she should try to better herself as a padawan regardless. Asking him about his Padawan Learner seemed to get the best results, and soon she found herself being regaled by stories of Ahsoka’s wartime exploits.

Skywalker seemed quite fond of his Padawan. Barriss wondered what Luminara sounded like when she spoke of Barriss to others—if Luminara spoke of her to others, that is. She wondered what Ahsoka Tano was learning about her? But what would Master Unduli have to say? Barriss was a much more boring and unremarkable person than Tano, it seemed. At least, if the picture Skywalker painted of the young togruta was any indication. It sounded like they never went on a mission without her doing something amazing and reckless to make him proud.

Barriss chided herself for such self-centered ruminations, though. What did it matter that Skywalker loved to boast about his Padawan? It was unseemly for a Jedi to boast of those whose accomplishments were directly tied to their own skill as a teacher, and of course Luminara would do no such thing.

Halfway through yet another story of one of his and Ahsoka’s spectacular, successful missions, Anakin’s comm pinged and he excused himself with a great deal of shifty-eyed awkwardness.

Barriss watched him side-step his way through the crowd, and though, drily, _I think I’ve found the Separatist spy_.

Left alone at the bar, Barriss looked around the room, taking in the many myriad beings gathered in the flashy neon lights of the club. She made an effort to scrutinize them, but she was sure there was nothing to see. She was beginning to suspect that Anakin had just been planning on hitting the town and enjoying some down time at this gaudy, underlit place, and had simply made up the whole bit about patrolling for Separatists. Why he felt the need to lie she was not sure, but perhaps he had felt ashamed of forgetting that he was supposed to be instructing a Padawan Learner that day.

Luminara would no doubt tell her to look past her own selfish pique at being slighted by Master Yoda and think about how it might be just as awkward for Skywalker to be tasked with mentoring a former peer. Yes. In theory, Barriss could see how one might sympathize for the clearly unprepared young Jedi. Mostly though, she just thought that if he already had his other padawan whom he got along with so extra fabulously, this assignment shouldn’t be such a terrible imposition. And really, how could a Knight and General fail to be prepared? Such absent mindedness would mean death on a battlefield.

“Well, what do we have here,” said a voice at her back, and Barriss turned to see a young balosar leaning against the bar, smiling at her with a predatory look. “I don’t think I’ve seen you round here, now have I?”

“No, you haven’t.”

“Hmmmmmm. You look like the discerning sort. Can I interest you in some of the finest death sticks on Coruscant?” he asked, pulling aside his jacket to reveal it was lined with an assortment of illicit drugs. Powders rolled up in filament tubing and liquids in little glass vials, with rows of sharp glinting needles in plastic sleeves, all carefully arranged.

Barriss’s eyes widened. “Those are illegal,” she said.

“Very,” he confirmed, with a widening grin. “Want some?”

“No, thank you.”

Suddenly he dropped his jacket and a flicker of alarm crossed his face as he looked past Barriss’s shoulder. She turned once more, to see Anakin coming back.

“We should head out,” said Anakin without even looking at the sylthmonger. “I just received a message about some, ah, important intel from a contact and so we need to head over to the senate district and talk to them.”

“This man is selling illegal drugs and stimulants,” Barriss told him, waving one hand towards the balosar. “I think we should arrest him.”

“What? No,” said Anakin dismissively. He even rolled his eyes at the idea. “Go on, get lost, Sleazebaggano.”

“It’s Sel’Sabagno, actually,” muttered Sleazebaggano even as he was backing away.

“Do you really want me to remember your name?”

“Good point,” he said with a sleazy chuckle, and then he disappeared into the crowd.

“Why did you let him leave?” Barriss protested. “That man is spreading narcotics throughout—”

“It’s not our job to worry about petty street criminals,” Anakin said, scoffing. “Let the police droids deal with him. Come on, we’ve got to get going.”

Barriss bristled at being ordered about by him, but then remembered that she was a Padawan assigned to a Knight for tutelage, so she fixed a smile on her face and followed him out of the Outlander Club.

“You know, it’s getting very late,” said Anakin once they were outside. “Perhaps you should head on back to the Temple. I don’t mind if you want to go back.”

The idea of going back and resting was indeed very appealing, but something contrary rose up in Barriss and she replied, “Thank you, but I am not tired. It sounds like we are finally about to do something important. I would very much like to accompany you to meet with this senator.”

“Hmm,” was all Anakin said, before he began walking, and she had to practically jog to keep up with him. She felt like his poor astromech, always having to chug after him. _And his poor padawan!_ She thought. What must Ahsoka Tano have to put up with with this overgrown tree of a boy-man as a master. He was so strange and erratic.

It took them quite a while to get to the senate district, and it was a silent, awkward trip. Barriss got the distinct impression that she had done or said something to upset him, even though just before he had gotten that comm ping he had been chatting away over his drink about how great Ahsoka was and hadn’t seemed to mind Barriss tagging along on this “mission” after all.

Once they arrived the towering Senate Apartment Complex, Anakin turned to her and said, “I want you and Artoo to do some surveillance on floors 20 thru 30.”

“What?” she blurted, convinced she had not heard him right.

“Is there a problem with that? Is it too many floors? Stick to 20-25 if you have trouble.” He actually seemed uncertain as he said this, as if he were picking the numbers out of thin air, which made it just feel all the more surreal.

“What or who am I surveying?”

“Just patrol those levels and keep an eye out for suspicious activity.”

Barriss held out her hands and just stared at him for a moment with her mouth gaping. Luminara would never tolerate such a lack of decorum, but then again, Luminara would never behave like _this._ “Where are you going?” she asked, unable to think of anything else to say.

“Don’t worry about that. If you need me you have my comm frequency,” he said, tapping the comlink on his wrist. Then he hopped into a turbolift and was gone.

“I don’t believe this,” said Barriss to the astromech, who beeped at her in response. “Is he always like this?” she asked, and it made what she was certain was an affirmative noise.

Barriss walked to a different turbolift and dutifully took it up to the assigned twentieth floor. Once there, she and Artoo paced along the length of the hallway before coming to a spacious common area. There was an information desk with a droid stationed at it nearby, a few screens displaying popular HoloNet channels hanging overhead, and an array of chairs and lounges taking up the floor space. She nodded to other passersby and tried to look as if she belonged there, striding casually over to a holomap. It gave floors plans for the entire building, and was by default set to to show the current level.

Barriss stood at the holomap pedestal, contemplating the various common areas available to her. There was a café on floor 29 and a holotheatre on floor 26, as well as a fitness center located on floor 30. The senate complex was largely self-sufficient, with shops, restaurants, and other areas peppered throughout selected levels. At least Skywalker had assigned her to levels 20 through 30, which included many of these common areas, instead of directing her to the floors which only held personal living spaces. Barriss didn’t care for the thought of being expected to skulk past senator’s apartment doors looking for something suspicious, as if she herself wouldn’t be the most suspicious being around.

She decided to go to the café on floor 29 in defiance of Anakin’s orders to patrol up and down all five to ten floors. If Luminara had given her this assignment, there is no way she would have deviated from her orders. In fact she would strive to find a way to go above and beyond, perhaps enlisting the astromech to record the endeavor for later review, or even see if it could get them into some restricted areas.

But she strongly suspected that Anakin was just trying to get rid of her and didn’t actually care about her stumbling upon any Separatist activity. Frankly, she should be spying on him right now, what with all his dodgy looks and flimsy excuses to ditch the padawan he had been assigned. What senator was he meeting with anyway? How did they have Separatist related intelligence? And why was a Republic senator feeding a Jedi General intel directly instead of going to the Jedi Council? It made no sense.

Barriss sighed. She didn’t really think there was anything that sinister going on, if she was being honest with herself. She just couldn’t see Anakin Skywalker as a Separatist double agent. Maybe she was biased because she had been at the Battle of Geonosis, when Skywalker, Kenobi, and the senator from Naboo had been sentenced to die in the arena for the entertainment of the vicious Geonosians. And of course Anakin had lost an arm to Count Dooku, the Separatist leader. So as entertaining a conspiracy as it was to imagine that Skywalker was a clandestine Separatist, she just couldn’t see it being the case.

Besides, she had no idea what floor Anakin was on, now. He could be anywhere.

Barriss hoped they served Mirialan style tea at the café; Luminara made it at the Temple and Barriss was quite fond of it. Unfortunately, Mirial was located deep in what was now Separatist space and had no senate representative, so it was very possible that the Senate Apartment Complex would feel no need to cater to Mirialan tastes.

Barriss was almost tempted to head up to the holotheatre, turn her comlink off, and sit there for two hours watching a holodrama and see if Skywalker panicked when he couldn’t find her or contact her. The astromech presented a problem, though, since they wouldn’t allow it in the theatre and it would probably go looking for its master and tell on her. Oh well. Tea at the café sounded like a nice enough way to wait out this useless mission.

They did not have the Mirialan tea, sadly, and so after studying the menu and contemplating her choices at length, Barriss ordered a Starblossom Surprise, a pulverized fruit concoction whose main ingredient was, rather unsurprisingly, starblossom fruit. She told the server droid to “charge it tot the Jedi Temple account” and took her drink over to a secluded table in an alcove towards the back of the café. Artoo wheeled after her, burbling.

The drink was very good, thick and sweet and tangy sipped through a fat straw. The server droid had stuck a tiny imitation of an umbrella into the froth, and Barriss plucked it out and spun it between her fingers. Then, on impulse, she floated it over to the droid and stuck it in one of its grooves. It made a sound that she imagined was pleased, and she giggled at the sight. Then she covered her own mouth in surprise.

Barriss glanced around and took note of the other customers scattered around the café. Her eyes were drawn to a pair of togruta girls, likely senatorial aides to the representative from Shili. They were talking and laughing over drinks and plates of small tarts. It made her suddenly aware that she was alone with a droid in a place made for socialization, and she sighed. Not that she was upset, no, of course not. Being alone was something Barriss enjoyed. And she certainly didn’t care about the alternative, which was to sit and listen to Anakin go on and on about his padawan.

She wondered what Luminara and Ahsoka were doing. She wondered what they were talking about.

Barriss decided to diversify, and was on her third experimental drink order, when she got an odd feeling in the Force. A slight tremor.

She straightened and looked around the room again. This time, instead of being drawn to the togrutas, she noticed a lone figure slinking its way between the tables. A new customer had come into the café, a lean umbaran woman, with an aura of danger clinging to and swirling around her.

Instead of going to the droid at the counter to order, she walked further into the room, a deceptively casual sway to her hips. The sort of casual that was practiced. Barriss should know, since she had been practicing it earlier herself.

Barriss looked towards where she was headed. A slight, red-headed woman was seated alone at a table, quietly reading from a datapad and sipping a mug of something warm enough to send steam into the air. Barriss recognized the senator from Chandrila, a human woman who had made history by becoming the youngest being to ever be elected to a position in the Galactic Senate. That had been a few years ago, but Barriss knew her history, both Jedi and Republican. Luminara had always made sure that she was well educated, though some of her studies had fallen by the wayside since the start of the war. Battle tactics and healing had become more important than history and literature.

She looked back to the umbaran and zeroed in on her hands. One was planted on her hip and the other dangled down close to her leg. She held something there, concealed in her palm, shielded against her leg.

Barriss acted on instinct, letting the Force flow through her as she leapt from her own seat and launched herself across the room. “Halt!” she shouted, whipping out her lightsaber.

The woman turned, white eyes going wide in the gray-rimmed sockets that stood out from her ghastly pale face. She rocked back as Barriss sailed towards her, and reached out to catch herself on the edge of a table, then swiveled around it to make a run for the door.

The rest of the café erupted in confusion, but Barriss stayed focused on the suspicious umbaran. Barriss caught her with the Force and slammed her down onto the table, then held her blade to the near-human woman’s neck and said, “Show me what is in your hand!”

The umbaran clenched her fist, and Barriss reached out with her free hand, trying to peel the woman’s fingers away from her prize. They struggled for a moment, but then Barriss prevailed, and the woman gasped and let her hand go slack. A small punch-needle filled with a whitish solution fell to the floor. Barriss floated it up into her own hand and peered at it.

“Poison? For Senator Mothma, I presume?” she said, holding it up to the light. “Who are you? Why are you trying to kill the senator? Who sent you?”

The umbaran just hissed profanity in her native language.

A pair of senate guards rushed up to them, then, demanding to know what was going on.

Barriss explained, calmly, that she was on “important Jedi Business” and had apprehended a would-be assassin who had be targeting Mon Mothma. The guards supplied a pair of cuffs, and said they would take the prisoner away from there, but Barriss objected.

“Excuse me, but this prisoner is a suspected Separatist whom I have been searching for at the behest of General Skywalker. I am to turn her over to him.”

“I’m sorry, Padawan, but this building is under our protection and we will deal with anyone apprehended on the premises. Particularly one who is accused of trying to assassinate a senator.”

“I’m sorry, _sir,_ but I didn’t see you here earlier, when the Senator’s life was hanging by a filament,” said Barriss, looking down her nose at the man. “As I said, we Jedi have been tracking this person all night and so now if you’ll excuse me, I must take her with me.”

“Now see here—”

“Excuse me,” said Mon Mothma quietly, and they all turned to look at her. “I’m afraid I don’t know what’s going on. I’ve never seen this woman before.” She motioned to the umbaran. “There must be some sort of mistake. I don’t know why she would want to harm me.”

“No doubt she’s some kind of mercenary, dredged up from the slums of the galaxy by a political rival,” Barriss deduced, confidently. “We will question her to find out who hired her. Do not worry. We will find out who wishes to harm you.”

“Is there anyone you know who _would_ want to hurt you?” asked the senate guard.

Mothma shook her head. “No! Not at all. Chandrila is a peaceful society, we don’t engage in these sorts of political assassinations. Not like on Naboo. Goodness.”

“I don’t know who this tart is and I don’t know any of you,” the umbaran finally spoke in Basic. “I was just on my way to have a cuppa when this crazy Jedi came out of nowhere trying to chop my head off!”

“Oh?” Barriss scoffed. “And what about this?” She held up the punch-needle. “You were headed straight towards the Senator with this in your hand. Care to explain?”

“That’s not mine,” the umbaran insisted. She looked to the Senate guards. “She pulled that out of her own robes! She’s trying to set me up!”

Barriss uttered a disgusted snort. The guards looked at each other dubiously.

“It’s true!” the umbaran whined. “These Jedi are always playing tricks and trying to force people to do what they want! Before you got here I swear she was trying to muck about in my brain and make me believe I was an assassin! All I wanted was some caf! You’ve got to believe me!”

“This is ridiculous.” Barriss crossed her arms. Then she quickly uncrossed them again and tapped her comm, saying, “I’m calling General Skywalker. We’ll see what he thinks about all this!”

She didn’t get any reply, so she pinged again, and then again, and then with a huff she left a message. “Master Skywalker, sir,” she said with overly-exaggerated politeness. “I have found the Separatist assassin! Come to the café on floor 29 _at once.”_

The server droid rolled up to her and made a fussy motion with its hands. “Please, ma’am,” it said. “You are disrupting business. I must ask you to leave.”

“We’ll be taking this prisoner away now,” said the guard. He nodded to Barriss. “If the Jedi have business with her, someone can come to the Republic prison and request a visit.”

“But that’s not fair! I haven’t done anything! She set me up! You’ve got to believe me!”

“We’re going to put you in a nice secure cell until all this can be figured out,” the other guard told her.

“You haven’t got the right!”

“You’re under suspicion, we have every right to detain you while undergoing an investigation,” he said. “Now come along peacefully or we’ll charge you with disruptive behavior and resisting arrest.”

“Disruptive behavior? What about that one? She broke a table! She hurt me!”

“She’s a Jedi,” said the first guard simply, and they each took her by the arm to lead her away.

Barriss was left in the café, seething. The server droid kept rolling about, making a mechanical tutting noise, and said, “I’m afraid you’ll have to leave. Please.”

“I’m waiting for someone.”

“It’s alright,” said Mon Mothma, stepping forward and laying a hand on Barriss’s arm. “Come with me, we’ll wait together. I have a feeling I will have to go to the prison myself and try to sort this out.” She hesitated, then said, “Thank you for your quick actions. If that woman was an assassin hired to kill me, I shudder to think—”

Barriss shook her head. “There’s no need to thank me. It is a Jedi’s sworn duty to protect others. I acted on instinct.”

“I must thank you regardless,” said Mon. “It seems you have saved my life.”

Barriss felt sudden embarrassment. Mothma seemed intent on praising her and showering her with gratitude, and she really didn’t know how to respond. Luminara often gave her a succinct, “well done” and she would nod and leave it at that. But the senator had emotion behind her voice that seemed to beg for more than that.

“You’re welcome,” Barriss said, and curtseyed.

They left the café, passing the table where the togruta girls sat. They gazed up at Barriss with curious expressions, something like… wonder? Admiration? It gave Barriss a strange feeling and so she chose not to dwell on it, simply gave them a nod and said, “Jedi Business.”

In the hallway, Mothma said, “Please, come to my apartment and wait for your Master there.”

Barriss was about to make an excuse as to why she could not, but then she noticed that the senator looked nervous and strained. Of course. A non-combatant would indeed be shaken after an attempt on their life. Barriss inwardly chided herself for not being more observant. “I will escort you to your quarters,” she said. “To make sure you get there safely.”

Mothma blanched. “You don’t think that there will be another attempt, do you?”

“Of course not,” Barriss said, thinking just that. “But it is my duty to see you safely to a secure location.”

She pinged Anakin again, still getting no answer, and she left a second message explaining that she was going to be at the apartment of Mon Mothma awaiting further instruction.

Once they reached Mothma’s quarters, Barriss insisted on doing a once over to check for any signs of intruders or security weak points. Then she ordered Artoo to patrol the windows and doors while she meditated and reached out into the Force to sense any approaching danger.

“Do you like tea?” asked the Senator, going to her kitchenette. “I can make some. You must think me strange to go down to the café when I have a brewer here, but I like the atmosphere. The quiet hum of background chatter, the clinking of the dishes… it calms me.” She smiled and shook her head. “Well, usually.”

“I would love some tea,” Barriss told her. Then she knelt down on the floor and closed her eyes.

She sensed no danger, but after a while she could smell the aroma of the brewing tea, a sweet Chandrilan blend. She tried to push that away, along with the sounds of Mothma moving about and Artoo wheeling in purposeful circles around the perimeter, so that she could listen to what the Force told her. But she sensed no danger or anything out of the ordinary.

It was likely that the umbaran had been trusted enough to do her job that no back-up plan had been made to take out the senator. Barriss wished she were given the chance to interrogate the would-be killer. She clenched her fists just thinking about those guards swooping in late to take her prisoner away. They would not have disrespected her so if she were older, if she were Knighted, she thought. Or, if Skywalker had answered his blasted comm and backed her up.

She felt her own anger and willed it away, pushing it down with the Force, concentrating on breathing out and expelling the toxic thoughts, giving them to the air and the Force to transmute into positive energy. As Luminara had taught her.

Mothma set a mug down on an end table nearby, but didn’t say anything, clearly not wanting to disturb Barriss's concentration. Barriss opened her eyes and took the drink with a “thank you” as she rose from the floor and went over to sit on a cushioned chair.

“You said that you were tracking a Separatist spy,” said Mothma. “I have been turning it over in my head and I cannot understand why the Separatists would target me specifically? I have been outspoken in the Senate about trying to end this war and reach a diplomatic situation. Believe me, I am no Separatist, and Chandrila is committed to the Republic. But I have argued in favor of meeting with the planetary leaders in the C.I.S. and having a dialogue with them about the issues they face which lead to their disatisfaction. I have long held that planets do not secede for no reason at all and that to hold our Republic together we must be more in touch with our unhappy brethren. If we are open to listening, to discussing the concerns these systems have, we will have a much better chance of winning than by simply shooting at them. And if we try harder to understand, we can prevent yet more star systems leaving. A marriage does not end with the divorce, after all.”

Barriss had no idea what Mothma meant about marriage, so she just sipped her tea, murmuring, “I really couldn’t say.”

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t talk at you like I’m giving a speech,” Mothma said with a laugh.

“It’s alright. I think I understand your point. You are a friend to the Separatists.”

“Oh, no, no,” Mothma objected.

“I didn’t mean it to sound treasonous. Just that you are not a logical target for them.”

“Yes.”

“Perhaps,” Barriss said thoughtfully, “there are some on our side of the conflict who do see your calls for understanding and moderation to be… controversial? Controversial enough to want to silence you. Perhaps there are those who would rather have war than peace.”

Mothma’s eyebrows shot up. “Forgive me, but I’m surprised to hear you say that.”

“Why?”

“Well, because you’re a Jedi.”

“I don’t follow.”

Mothma smiled, and shook her head. “Well, there are some who say the Jedi profit from this ongoing conflict.”

“Who says that?”

“Oh, no one in particular.”

“Do you think that?”

“I think,” said Mothma, “that a Jedi saved my life tonight.”

Barriss was saved from further expressions of gratitude by the doorchime. “It’s Anakin, finally,” she said, jumping up. “But you stay here just to be safe.”

She went to the door and waved it open, to see not only Anakin but the Senator from Naboo standing outside.

“Senator Amidala,” she said, bowing slightly. “This is unexpected.”

“Oh yes, I encountered Anakin Skywalker in the hallway and since we are old friends I naturally stopped to say hello, but he was in an awful rush and seemed quite worried, so naturally I asked what was wrong, and when he told me there had been an attempt on Mon’s life I had to come myself and make sure she was alright,” said Senator Amidala, motioning with her hands as if she were giving a presentation in the senate.

“Um, okay,” said Barriss, not knowing how else to respond to the onslaught of an explanation. She turned to Anakin. “Anyway. I found the Separatist.”

“I heard,” Anakin responded, seeming just as surprised as she was that their mission had been successful. Artoo wheeled up to him and he frowned a little as he reached down to pluck the miniature umbrella out of the droid’s chassis. There were two more lodged in the droid, and Barriss pretended not to notice as he picked them out with a puzzled look. “Where is the assassin now?” he asked, twirling an umbrella between his fingers before crumpling it up.

“The senate guards took her away,” she explained, not even trying to keep the pique out of her voice. “They swooped in and claimed jurisdiction. I tried to tell them it was a Jedi matter, but I’m just a Padawan, so….”

“We had better track them down,” said Anakin. “Is the Senator alright?”

Barriss looked over to where Mothma was seated. Amidala had left them to go over to the other woman, and she was now seated next to her with a comforting arm around her shoulders.

“Physically, yes,” said Barriss. “But she is rattled. Not used to this sort of thing.”

“Padmé is,” Anakin said with an odd touch of ire in his voice.

 _Padmé,_ Barriss thought. _How informal._ Well, they were old friends, after all. And if Geonosis wasn’t a bonding experience, she didn’t know what was. It occurred to her that Amidala was probably the senate contact Anakin had come to see, which was still odd, since if Amidala had learned of a possible assassination attempt fomenting against Mon Mothma, why summon a Jedi in secret while letting her friend traipse about unprotected like so much bait?

It was merely luck, or the will of the Force, that had led Barriss to the café, not strategy.

Really, it was a wonder the Separatists hadn’t already won the war with brilliant minds like Skywalker and Amidala on the side of the Republic.

“We’ll be fine here, you two should go investigate,” said Amidala, looking up and meeting Skywalker’s gaze.

He nodded, then said, “I’m leaving Artoo with you. And I want you to call security up here to guard the room. I’ll see if we can get some Jedi assigned to your protection, Senator Mothma.”

“Oh, I don’t want all that,” Mothma protested. “I’m very grateful to Padawan Offee for her actions but I would rather not have a Jedi security detail.”

Anakin frowned, and said, “It’s up to you, but I wouldn’t take something like this lightly.” He nodded to Padme. “Senator Amidala can tell you.”

“I’m aware of how the Jedi have helped with such matters in the past,” Mothma said, offering a quick nod. “But really, I must refuse the offer.”

Barriss had an idea why Mothma was so against the idea. She had brushed aside her suspicions of the Jedi earlier, but there was still something there, in her eyes, that niggled at Barriss. Did others really think that the Jedi were warmongers? That they might resent calls for peace from the senate?

She just shook her head and followed Anakin out of the apartment.

They traveled to the Republic Judiciary Central Detention Center, and Barriss related to Anakin what had happened in the café. She left out the part where she’d be stewing about his orders and running up the Jedi tab.

When they arrived at the prison and asked about the umbaran assassin, they were told it was impossible to see her.

“Why not?” Anakin asked.

“I’m afraid she’s dead, sir,” said the clone trooper.

“What?” Barriss exclaimed. “How is that possible?”

“Looks like… she had a cyanide capsule in her molar,” said the clone, tapping through the databank. “She took it after she was escorted to a cell. Dead in a matter of seconds. There was no reviving her, sir.”

“That makes no sense,” Barriss muttered, shaking her head, as they turned away. “She just didn’t seem like the kind who would kill herself.”

“What makes you say that?”

“I don’t know. It’s just a feeling I guess. She protested so much.”

“She was caught. She had no way out and she knew it.”

“Now we have no way of knowing who hired her,” Barriss lamented.

“I wouldn’t say that. We’ve got her body, we can find out her identity, maybe look into who her contacts were, find out if anyone knows anything,” he said. Then he corrected himself, “Well, whoever takes charge of the investigation can.”

“Will we be asked to investigate?”

“I don’t know, Barriss. Maybe. We’ll have to tell the Council about it and see what they want us to do.”

“Shall I prepare a report on the night’s events?”

“Probably a good idea.”

“Will you be submitting a report?”

He ran a hand through his hair and shrugged.

“Was your rendezvous with Senator Amidala successful?”

_“What?”_

His response was so sharp that she drew back a little. “I thought that you were meeting with Senator Amidala. Your contact. The reason we went to the Apartment Complex in the first place?” she said. “Was the intel about the assassin?”

“Ah,” he said. “Um, no. It wasn’t about that. Turned out to just be about, ah, diplomacy. Very mundane. About Naboo. You know, run of the mill… stuff. I’ll put it in my report.”

“I thought it was intel on Separatist activity.”

“Ah, no. No. it was ideas on Separatist… diplomacy.”

“Senator Mothma mentioned that,” said Barriss, folding her hands together. “I think it may have something to do with the assassination attempt. Someone might be targeting moderate senators—those who speak out against the continued escalation of the war.”

“Someone?” he asked with a raised eyebrow.

“She seemed suspicious of the Jedi, to be honest. Not that she said anything outright, but you saw how she refused our offer of protection.”

“That’s ridiculous. The Jedi would never target a senator for suggesting peaceful resolutions to the war. The Jedi are peacekeepers, it’s exactly what we want.”

“You must admit that the war, which has lasted for almost a year now, may make some question that assertion,” said Barriss.

He just gave her a sidelong look, and she sighed. There was something not right, still, about this whole night; about Anakin, about the assassination attempt and about Senators Mothma and Amidala and… all of it. Everything. But Barriss was too tired to probe further. “With your leave I shall retire to my quarters to work on preparing a report for the Council,” she said, with a polite half bow.

“Yes, that’s a good idea. I’m going to head back to the senate apartments to check up on the senators,” he replied. “And Barriss?”

“Yes?”

“You did good work tonight, stopping that assassin. Really. Most impressive.”

She gave him the same silent nod she gave Luminara when her master offered her praise.

“Perhaps we’ll work together again before the war is over,” he said.

“Possibly,” she agreed. “I should like to meet your padawan.”

He smiled at that. “I think you and Ahsoka would get along great.”

“Do you?”

“Yes. You have a lot in common, you know.”

“We do?” Barriss was skeptical, remembering the tales he had told of the togruta earlier in the night.

“Yeah; I leave you alone for two minutes and all hell breaks loose, just like Ahsoka.”

It took a moment to realize he was making a joke, and Barriss just smiled and shook her head. “Such unpredictable events rarely occur in my life,” she told him. “I believe tonight’s serendipity is down to your teaching style, Master Skywalker. Which is to say, leaving your padawan alone for a while until trouble finds her.”

He laughed. “That’s probably true,” he conceded. “But if it was the will of the Force for you save Mon Mothma’s life, I was just playing my part.”

“Do you really believe that?”

“Believe what?”

“That it was the Force which led me to the café at just the right time?”

“Of course. I mean, Obi-Wan always says that nothing happens by coincidence. Doesn’t Luminara say the same?”

“Yes.”

He spread out his hands. “There you go.”

Barriss nodded. “One should always listen to one’s master. They are very wise.”

He laughed, though she hadn’t been joking, then he explained; “Ahsoka wouldn’t say the same.”

“I am sure that she looks up to you,” Barriss said, politely. “But I’ll have to ask her if we ever do have the chance to meet.”

He laughed again, though she still wasn’t trying to jest. He gave her an informal salute as he walked away. “Another time.”

* * *

 

A few months later, Barriss found herself on a transport along with Luminara, heading towards the red surface of Geonosis for a second time. It had been about a year and half ago that they had fought there last, in the deadly battle that had marked the beginning of the Clone Wars. She gripped the strap which dangled down from the ceiling and squinted in the blinding sand that swirled past the gravchopper thrusters and into the transport. She tried to focus on the task Luminara had given her, to memorize the labyrinthine tunnels below the weapons factory.

They were to meet up with Anakin Skywalker and his Padawan Learner, Ahsoka Tano. Despite trying to stay focused on the task at hand, Barriss remembered back not only to the first battle fought on Geonosis, but also that day she had saved Mon Mothma from an assassin on Coruscant. Knowing she would finally meet Tano reminded her of the stories Anakin had told of her, and Barriss wondered if Ahsoka would be as daring and reckless and brave and brilliant as he had described her that night.

What a strange night that had been. They’d never found out who was trying to kill Mon Mothma. Both she and Anakin had submitted their reports, but since Mothma didn’t seem to want the Jedi’s help, the Council elected not to pursue it any further. As far as Barriss knew, the senator was still alive and now traveled with a tighter Chandrilian security cadre than before.

As for Maser Unduli and Padwan Tano—Luminara had returned to Coruscant with injuries from a battle with the Separatist agent Asajj Ventress, who had attacked in order to free the prisoner they had been transporting. Anakin had left to rendezvous with his padawan in search of the escaped prisoner, and the war had continued.

Barriss was starting to wonder if the war would ever end. For the galaxy, that is. She feared that the war could end for her any day now. Many Padawans were sent from the halls of the Temple into battle and many died. She was well aware that she had narrowly escaped death the first time she had been to this planet, and that she had escaped death once more in the Crystal Caves on Ilum. She had been training as a healer, hoping to transfer away from active battlefields and eventually work on a healing station such as Ord Cestus. But her studies were progressing slowly, and Luminara needed her often on the front.

She felt a shifting in the Force, as if it was trying to tell her something, to warn her, perhaps. It was this place, this twice accursed planet, she thought. She had almost died here once and perhaps, as fate would have it, she was being brought back to face an inescapable destiny. Some might say that was a morose and morbid thought, but she told herself that she was not afraid. She was prepared. And if the Force willed her death this day, so be it. She was ready. Wasn’t she? A Jedi must always be ready to embrace the Force.

She was still only seventeen, yet to mark her birthday this year. Every year she and Luminara would share a pot of Mirialan tea and Luminara would tell her, again, the story of the day her mother had brought her as an infant to the Temple and put her into Luminara’s arms and then disappeared into the Coruscanti night.

The shuttle touched down and both Luminara and Barriss stepped out onto the hot desert terrain of the planet. Up ahead Barriss caught sight of Anakin, who was deep in some kind of heated debate with a tiny togruta girl. There was hand waving and pointing and shouting involved.

“At it again, are they,” sighed Luminara.

“Again, Master?” Barriss asked.

“Let’s just say they have a penchant for playing loose with regulations and rules of command.”

Barriss said nothing. That seemed about right for the Anakin she remembered. But he’d spoken so glowingly of Ahsoka that she was surprised they should be arguing like this and that it was a regular occurrence.

“...well if you don’t trust me, maybe you should send me back!” Padawan Tano was saying, indignation clear in her voice.

“Don’t tempt me, Snips,” Anakin replied with a wearied laugh.

“If you’re both finished with your little discussion, we do have a factory to destroy,” said Luminara as they approached.

Barriss quietly looked on as she walked beside Luminara. Skywalker’s young apprentice was, somehow, both everything and nothing like Barriss had expected her to be.

“Well, Barriss. Aren’t you going to introduce yourself?” Luminara prompted.

She gathered herself together and curtsied into a bow, going down on one knee, putting forth her most polished and polite greeting: “Padawan Learner, Barriss Offee, at your service.”

Padawan Tano looked surprised and unsure, and as Barriss still knelt there, somewhat regretting her instinct to be as formal as possible, the young togruta looked up to Skywalker for guidance. He just smiled, amused, and after a moment Ahsoka stepped forward.

“Glad to meet you,” she said, putting out a hand, pulling Barriss up. “I’m Ahsoka.”

_fin_

* * *

 

 

  


**Author's Note:**

> A note on the timeline:
> 
> Barriss’s official canon age is unclear, though in the EU she was only one year younger than Anakin. For the purpose of my fanfics I consider her to be about 3 years younger than Anakin, ergo 3 years older than Ahsoka. So, at the time of the the First Battle of Geonosis (AotC), Anakin and Barriss were 19 and 16. At the time of S1E9 Cloak of Darkness (late in the year BBY 22) they should be 20 and 17. S2E6 Weapons Factory takes place midway through BBY 21.
> 
> My reference to Barriss’ mother handing her over to Luminara and then leaving is inspired by the fan comic, [Contrasts: Tattoos.](http://contrasts-comic.tumblr.com/post/124830528511/here-you-go-about-chapters-characters)
> 
> The [fight at the Crystal Caves](https://youtu.be/1568yn1FSMw) takes place in the 2003 Clone Wars series.


End file.
